Tori

I really like Brooklyn. I only like America for Brooklyn, basically (laughs). I live in the outskirts of a “fancier” neighborhood. It’s a pretty nice neighborhood, but it’s not as fancy as the Brownstones. You know Park Slope? I live around there, but not in that neighborhood. They are really small old houses. There aren’t many things to do; in some other neighborhoods they will have things you can do, but there it’s more houses. I’m a couple blocks away from a train.

[I liked] the community; it is more than just a protest. For the most part, people really do treat each other well and they care about each other. It’s demonstrating what democracy looks like; it’s demonstrating how people should be…

I’m in high school. If I don’t get into [the college] I’d like to go to, or if it’s going to be too expensive, I want to travel or something. Wanderlust, I just want to travel really badly. I just like the idea of it; all of my idols, or people who I respect, were travelers. Which relates to this, because a lot of people here have been all over.

[I’d like to study] play writing, probably. I like theater and I’ve been doing acting for a while, but I don’t like it as much as other aspects in theater. I like writing plays more so than novels or anything like that. You can still get political messages out in your plays without smacking you in the face with it, like Brecht.

My friend came [to Occupy Wall Street] the first day, when they had that long protest. Then, a couple weeks after that, I came and was like, “OK, I really like this.” I kept coming back. [I liked] the community; it is more than just a protest. For the most part, people really do treat each other well and they care about each other. It’s demonstrating what democracy looks like; it’s demonstrating how people should be, even though they can’t really be like that.

It’s given me hope, a better optimism for human nature, for the human condition; and for the future. Even though they took away our tents, people are still here, people are still fighting. It’s not over. If you are here for a while, and then you walk out on the streets and see how a lot of other people are, you see a big difference, in attitudes, in the energy of people. It’s a lot different here than if you were to walk a couple blocks down.